“We Are X,” filmmaker Stephen Kijak’s new documentary about the longtime hard rock sensation X Japan, is a revelation. The film holds nothing back as it chronicles the more than 30 years of highs and lows that made up the life and career of one of the biggest bands in Japanese history.

But it took years to convince one key player that it was a story worth telling: Yoshiki, the iconic drummer/composer/pianist of X Japan, said his agent spent three years persuading him before Yoshiki finally agreed to participate in the film.

It was worth the effort, and the wait. “We Are X,” now playing in select theaters, is a compelling and vital document that should reveal a new side of the band’s story to longtime fans while also serving as a fine primer to audiences who have never heard a note of their work.

“When I first saw this film, I couldn’t say a word,” Yoshiki said. “I thought it was too much. If it was a fiction story, nobody would even write this kind of story, just because it’s too much."

Yoshiki looks out over his drum kit during a rehearsal for X Japan’s Madison Square
Garden concert in Drafthouse Films’ "We Are X."(Photo: Courtesy of Drafthouse Films)

If anything, that’s an understatement. The story of Yoshiki and X Japan takes a number of shocking turns: there’s the suicide of the musician’s father when he was just a child, the tragic 1998 death of X Japan guitarist Hide following the band’s break-up the year before, and the years lead singer Toshi spent under the influence of a cult.

The band’s story isn’t all doom and gloom, though: 10 years after their disbandment, X Japan staged a triumphant reunion that led to a 2014 headlining show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden featured in the film.

“Even the basic outline (of their story), you kind of can’t believe it,” said Kijak. “There’s suicide, there’s death, there’s a cult. Like, ‘What? OK,’ and then you wrap that up in that package and you start playing the music, and you see the oceans of fans X-jumping, which is a sight to behold if you’ve never seen it. It defied logic.”

Before being offered the job directing “We Are X,” Kijak — whose previous films include the 2010 Rolling Stones documentary “Stones in Exile” — had never heard of X Japan.

“How could I have not heard of this? It made no sense,” he said. “You think you’re so smart over here in the west, like we know everything about music. You feel superior in some way, which is completely wrong. The more I do these films, the more I realize how little I know about other music cultures. There’s always another door to kick open, and this was a huge one.”

The current incarnation of X Japan in Drafthouse Films’ "We Are X."(Photo: Courtesy of Drafthouse Films)

The film finds Yoshiki at his most vulnerable, both emotionally, as he digs deep into memories of his difficult past, and physically, as he copes with the physical toll taken by years of intense musicianship.

“Once we decided to do this film, I just opened the door all the way,” Yoshiki said. “So, Stephen had access to any of my footage or the band’s footage, and I told Stephen, ‘You can shoot pretty much anything you want.’ So, I don’t know why I trusted him that much, but I felt that if you’re going to tell the story, if you’re going to do anything, do it all the way.”

Beyond the film, Yoshiki has plenty of new work on the horizon. On Jan. 12 and 13, 2017, he’ll headline the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage of New York City’s Carnegie Hall for a classical performance accompanied by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, an occasion which he described as a dream come true.

He and X Japan are also in the process of finishing their first new album in 20 years. One of the album’s tracks, “La Venus,” is the closing credits song for “We Are X.”

After selling more than 30 million albums, singles and videos, Yoshiki described the process of creating the band’s first new full-length album in decades.

Yoshiki walks along a quiet street in Japan in Drafthouse Films’ "We Are X."(Photo: Courtesy of Drafthouse Films)

“We’re almost done, I would say 99 percent done,” he said. “Everything is pretty much recorded. We’re just editing and adding the final touch. We had 10 years of blank, 10 years we were not doing anything, so it’s not exactly the same as what we were doing 20, 30 years ago.

“But the emotion and everything we put in the music is the same, or even more, especially after we experienced the death (of Hide) and my vocalist’s cult issue and brainwashing issue. So I would say it’s much deeper, lyrics-wise, also melody-wise or voicing-wise. It’s also edgier, and this is the first time we’re releasing pretty much everything in English.”

Ultimately, Yoshiki said, the process of working on the film and opening himself up in this way had an incredibly cathartic effect on him.

“Some things, I didn’t want to touch, the memories I didn’t want to touch for a long time,” he said. “But being with that memory, now I can kind of move forward.

“I was always kind of somehow stuck in the past because I couldn’t really think deeply, but this film pretty much made me naked — it literally made me naked, too — but I can think (about) the future more clearly after watching the film. So I’d say it was really therapeutic. Actually more than therapeutic, it opened a new door for me and for us.”